• Nearly all new jobs filled by youth are unstable, temporary-contract positions

Half of young people in Spain’s southwestern region of Extremadura are living below the official poverty line, including two out of three who are unemployed and 38 percent of workers under the age of 30 who are employed at poverty wages.

According to figures provided by the annual Observatory of Youth Employment report (Observatorio Joven de Empleo, OBJOVEM) produced by the Spanish Youth Council (Consejo de la Juventud de España, CJE), young Extremadurans most impacted by the situation are young women, an estimated 50 percent of whom live below the poverty line, representing a 10 percent increase over the level of impoverished young women just one year earlier.

The report, based on data compiled through the first quarter of 2015, showed that fewer than 30 percent of young people between the ages of 16 and 29 were employed in the region.

While the year-on-year unemployment rate among young people fell slightly in 2015, an estimated 96 percent of all new jobs taken by young people in the region are on the basis of temporary contracts and do not represent stable employment.